Stabbing on London Bridge "is a terrorist attack"

Police shoot dead man who 

killed two in London 

stabbing, call it terrorist 

attack

Reuters,

28 November, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) - British police on Friday shot dead a man wearing a fake suicide vest who stabbed two people to death in London and injured three more before being wrestled to the ground by bystanders, in what the authorities called a terrorist attack.

The attacker went on the rampage just before 2 p.m. (1400 GMT), targeting people at Fishmongers’ Hall near London Bridge in the heart of the city’s financial district - the scene of a deadly attack by Islamist militants two years ago.

Out on the street, half a dozen bystanders tackled the suspect to the ground and grabbed his knife.

A video posted on Twitter showed police dragging one man off the suspect before an officer took careful aim. Two shots rang out. The man stopped moving.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has called a snap election for Dec. 12 and is due to host NATO leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump next week, praised those who took on the man for their courage and said Britain would never be cowed.

“I ... want to pay tribute to the extraordinary bravery of those members of the public who physically intervened to protect the lives of others,” Johnson told reporters in Downing Street.

“For me they represent the very best of our country and I thank them on behalf of all of our country,” Johnson said. “This country will never be cowed, or divided, or intimidated by this sort of attack.”

He said the incident was now thought to have been contained and vowed that anyone else involved would be hunted down. Downing Street said he would later chair a meeting of the government’s emergency security committee.

Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer, Neil Basu, said specialist armed officers from the City of London police shot the suspect, who died at the scene. He said a hoax explosive device was strapped to his body.

“Our Counter Terrorism detectives will be working round the clock to identify those who have lost their lives, to support all the victims and their families,” London police chief Cressida Dick told reporters.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Johnson’s main opponent in the election, said he was shocked by the incident and that his thoughts were with those caught up in it.

Campaigning has been temporarily suspended.

KICKED IN THE HEAD

Commissioner Dick said the attacker launched his assault at Fishmongers’ Hall, a grand building at the northern end of the bridge.

One of those who confronted the attacker there told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that he had kicked him in the head to make him drop the knife.

Stevie Hurst, who gives tours of the capital, said he and a colleague took on the suspect with about five others.

“I jumped in and kicked him in the head to make him release his knife. A few others did so,” he told the Telegraph. “He was shouting ‘get off me, get off me’.”

As three armed police officers circled the suspect in the shadow of the Shard skyscraper, western Europe’s tallest building, one bystander in a suit and tie grabbed the knife and swiftly retreated as police engaged.

The city’s mayor Sadiq Khan said ordinary Londoners had demonstrated “breath-taking heroism” in disarming the knife-wielding attacker despite him having a device which they did not know to be a hoax.

“What’s remarkable about the images we’ve seen is the breath-taking heroism of members of the public who literally ran towards danger not knowing what confronted them,” Khan told reporters.

The ambulance service declared a “major incident” in the area and London Bridge station, a busy commuter hub, was closed for a number of hours.

PREVIOUS ATTACKS

During the 2017 election campaign, London Bridge was the scene of an attack when three militants drove a van into pedestrians and then attacked people in the surrounding area, killing eight and injuring at least 48.

Islamic State said its fighters were responsible, but the British authorities have cast doubt on those claims.

The month before, a suicide bomber killed 22 children and adults and wounded 59 at a packed concert hall in the English city of Manchester, as crowds began leaving a concert by U.S. singer Ariana Grande.

In March the same year, an attacker stabbed a policeman close to London’s parliament buildings after a car ploughed into pedestrians on nearby Westminster Bridge.

Six people died, including the assailant and the policeman he stabbed, and at least 20 were injured in what police called a “marauding terrorist attack”.

Earlier this month, Britain had lowered its national terrorism threat level to “substantial” from “severe”, its lowest level since 2014.

This has not been reported yet in the British media

Several People Injured in 

Stabbing on Shopping Street 

in The Hague

Sputnik,

28 November, 2019

Several people have been wounded in a stabbing on a shopping street in The Hague on Friday, media reported, citing Dutch police.

The police said on its official Twitter account that three people had been wounded.

“Three people were injured in a knife attack on Grote Marktstraat,” the police said

Emergency services were at the scene, the city's police said in the statement, according to Reuters. The police are looking for a North African man, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands said that Dutch police were searching for a black-clad man between the ages of 40 and 50 in connection with the attack in The Hague.

Later, Dutch national broadcaster NOS said a knife attack in The Hague did not appear to be a terrorist attack.

Earlier on Friday, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said in a statement that an attacker stabbed several people on London Bridge in the UK capital. The UK's top counter-terrorism officer said that British police shot a man dead on London Bridge in a terrorism incident, adding that the suspect was wearing a hoax explosive vest.